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THE MAGIC OF FORMULA 5000

BLOWN ’69 CAMARO + F5000 +

APR. 2020 ISSUE 179

9

FLAWLESS TORANA

416803 510003

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465CI BIG BLOCK VALIANT ISSUE 179 ∞ APRIL 2020

JAW-DROPPING TORANA

PLUS: NINE-SECOND FORD POP, NITRO FUNNYCARS, MUSCLE CAR MADNESS, FLAWLESS FAIRLANE, +MORE

FEATURE 1963 FORD FAIRLANE 500 SPORTS COUPE CAR

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WORDS: TODD WYLIE  PHOTOS: ARIE STOKES

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THIS FAIRLANE MAY HAVE BEEN CRUISING THE STREETS OF LA WHEN THE DOORS BROUGHT OUT THEIR ICONIC HIT SONG ABOUT THE SEEDY SIDE OF LIFE IN LOS ANGELES, BUT THERE’S NOTHING SEEDY ABOUT IT NOW!

A

s retirement age was approaching for Tony Silcock, the thought of getting back behind the wheel of a classic car was nagging at him. After all, it’d been a few years since he’d owned anything of interest, and he’d soon be having plenty of time up his sleeve to enjoy something a little special. But what to buy?

This inevitable question was something that took plenty of research for Tony to find the answer to,

although when he came across this particular 1963 Fairlane 500, he was hooked straight away.

“I watched it for a couple of months — couldn’t figure out why it hadn’t sold,” he says. “So I rang the guy and talked about it with him over several calls and decided to progress it further.”

Of course, we know that nothing in the classic car world is easy, and there was no way you’d be reading this if Tony simply bought the car and drove off

happily. “I got a so-called expert appraiser to have a look at it and he came back with an absolutely glowing report,” he explains. While the guys from McCullough Shipping made the delivery to our shores simple, as soon as the car was rolled out of the container, Tony could see that the ‘expert’s’ appraisal had been anything but expert: “Straight away I could see a couple of old poorly done accident repairs, not to mention the brakes being

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EVENT TRILLO METALS MUSCLE CAR MADNESS 2020

REPORT

WORDS AND PHOTOS: ROD DUNN

THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF MUSCLE CAR MADNESS BROUGHT OUT MORE MADNESS THAN EVER BEFORE!

F

rom humble beginnings, Muscle Car Madness (MCM) has become one of the country’s must-do events, and each year attracts not only people from as far away as Auckland and Bluff but also its share of overseas visitors. Starting with an idea, event organizer Craig Stare held his first show back in 1991 in a Rangiora supermarket car park. With approximately 40 vehicles and 70 people showing up, Craig probably had no idea where the event would go or how successful it would become.

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A few short years later, the event moved to its current location at the Rangiora A&P Showgrounds. This facility has all the amenities needed to hold and run a multi-day event such as MCM. With plenty of acreage, there is room in for the show, held on Saturday and Sunday; plenty of trade stalls; a stage for the many bands that play throughout the weekend; and a cruise road which runs the full length, including the camping area. With this year marking the event’s 30th anniversary, it saw massive numbers, not only of entrants and spectators but also campers.

Left: With Saturday’s show looking to be huge, many participants were up early to snap up a great location within the A&P showgrounds arena.

This awesome line-up taking up some prime real estate is Tony Brunt’s big block Holden HQ, which was only completed a couple of days earlier; Rowan Costello’s Supercharger version — Rowan had travelled down from Nelson for the event; from Wellington, Lyall and Lucy Stewart’s supercharged ’32 Ford coupe; and, at the far end, Brendon Shearing’s twin-turbo HQ Monaro from the deep south

According to many of the entrants who had claimed their small piece of turf for the weekend, hitching up the caravan and towing it out to Rangiora for the weekend or pitching the tent next to your mate’s really is the only way to truly experience MCM. As in previous years, the event got underway on Wednesday when the gates opened in the evening for campers to start setting up. As popular as

it normally is, camping this year was even more stretched, as a lot more people showed up to help celebrate the special occasion. Facebook even showed the first camper queuing up at 6am hoping to get the same spot as last year! Overall, the influx of party revellers was fairly orderly once the gates were thrown open, with most securing the same patch of earth without any issues.

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EVENT AEROFLOW OUTLAW NITRO FUNNY CARS

REPORT

WORDS: TREVOR TYNAN  PHOTOS: LANCE FARROW

THE AEROFLOW OUTLAW NITRO FUNNY CARS WERE JUST WHAT MEREMERE DRAGWAY NEEDED TO END THE DROUGHT

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H

aving to turn the wipers on for the first 20 minutes of the journey is never a great start to a day at the drag strip, especially when the meeting has already been postponed for a day due to inclement weather. The country may be in the middle of a record-breaking dry spell, but still an overseas tour can virtually guarantee vertical dampness. For many drag racers, ‘rain’ is the original four-letter word.

Unlike the situation on Saturday, 22 February, on Sunday the 23rd, the weather looked likely to clear.

The smell of fresh traction compound could be

detected from the car park, which was already filling at a great rate. Clearly, the return of the Aeroflow Outlaw Funny Cars to UnZed had enticed many to change their plans around for the weekend.

Many had been waiting since the rainout two seasons before, and the excellent promotion that preceded the event ensured a great turnout of spectators, some of them complete drag racing virgins.

In case you didn’t know, the coupes used for Aeroflow Outlaw fuel racing are a little bit different from the cars used in regular drag racing, such as our Outlaw 71, Vintage Gassers, or Wild Bunch

shows. This is a bunch of similar cars specifically put together as a package. Where the Aeroflow cars differ is that they are all extremely similar under the skin, equipped with 4000hp Hemis and two-speed transmission, and they race heads up — first to the finish line wins. No qualifying passes, no data loggers; a tuner and driver really have to have their stuff together in order to win.

The Cowins have been involved in drag racing for a long time and have raced at the very top level of the sport. They not only know how to prepare and present a professional image; they actually define

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FEATURE 1953 FORD POP CAR

WORDS: KEVIN SHAW PHOTOS: BRODIE GEERLINGS

IT MAY BE AS AERODYNAMIC AS AN OPEN PARACHUTE, BUT THAT HASN’T STOPPED DARREN RICHES’ FORD POP FROM BECOMING THE COUNTRY’S QUICKEST NATURALLY ASPIRATED PUMP-GAS STREETER!

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I

n 1999, the end of the millennium was coming and much of the world was stressing out over the Y2K bug and the chaos it would bring. You would have thought the end of the world was nigh, yet all turned out well in the end.

Around this time Wellington’s Darren Riches was facing a few dilemmas of his own, one of which would also end up just fine, as you will see here.

Darren had a 302 Windsor–powered 1948 Ford Pop and it was a great little street car; it just didn’t have the get up and go he wanted — something anyone who had moved from a quick T-bucket to a closed-in car with a lot fewer cubes would

understand. To get the performance Darren was after, the Pop would need more than just a repower; the chassis, brakes, etc. would all need doing — hence the dilemma: strip down a perfectly good car that already drove OK or buy one already done?

The decision was made easier when this 1953 Pop came up for sale in New Plymouth. It looked all right and was 402 Chev–powered, already four-barred in the rear, and cost only a few grand more than Darren could get for the current one.

Needless to say the big block Pop was soon Wellington bound!

Being bright orange, the Pop certainly stood out and was soon a regular sight around the Hutt Valley. While it drove well and the big block 402 was a lot of fun, Darren soon realized the car would need some work to get it the way he wanted. There were no side panels for the hood — left off to try and keep the cooling under control — and there was a piece of stainless on the firewall that really needed to go; nothing major, just a few things Darren wanted / needed to tidy up. The Pop’s chassis was pretty good, and with the four-bar rear end it launched pretty hard, but it just wasn’t quite right. The Panhard rod would

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